Sherrill Hannon’s artistic interests started in childhood, realizing a natural ability to draw and color before learning to read. Her first portrait at age four was done by an artist who had a studio near her home and whom she visited often.

Her initial training was from the modern/minimal artist teachers at the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of New Hampshire, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree.

But, it was the beauty of the Barbizon School Tonalists and French Impressionists that appealed more to her artistically than abstract modern art when visiting museums in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., London, and Paris.

Through contact with other artists, she found a master teacher, Paul Ingbretson, who showed her there was still a place for artists trained in the “Boston School Tradition” (Benson, Hale, Paxton, Tarbell, etc.) She studied at The Ingbretson Studio of Drawing and Painting from 1995-1999. His studio was similar to the great ateliers of 19th century Paris, where students designed paintings in relation to natural north light and its contrasting shadows. Training was in an orderly progression from cast drawing to figurative drawing, still life, portrait and figurative oil painting, and older students helped younger students. Demonstrations and seminars were given covering such issues as perspective, composition and anatomy. There were also discussions about the art books on his reading list containing painters’ thoughts and ideas on the lore of painting. It was a different world. The studio was open dawn to dusk. This new world was like genesis to her. This environment helped create the artist she wanted to be.

In January 2000, she opened a studio of her own and specializes in creating oil paintings in both a tonalistic and impressionistic style as well as plein-air landscape paintings. She loves what she does.

She lives with her husband in Westwood, Massachusetts.